Embodiments herein generally relate to printing devices and more particularly to a printing device that modifies image creation order within a duplexing operation.
Competitive pressures demand the fastest possible printing speeds, while at the same time, prices must be held or lowered. Cost effective method and hardware solutions have been implemented in past products. The need for further improvement is always present, although elusive.
One advance included in some modern offset imaging devices, such as printers, MFPs, all-in-ones and the like, may be referred to as a multi-image duplexing printer capable of concurrently creating (jetting) two or more images or pages. With a multi-image duplexing printer, multiple images jetted onto an offset image receiving surface can be transferred to multiple sheets of media in a single transfer cycle. For example, marking material or ink, such as solid ink in a molten state, is jetted onto the image receiving surface, hereafter generally referred to as a drum, and each transfer rotation of the drum can transfer the multiple images to at least two sheets of media as the sheets pass through a transfix nip. Transfix is a term used to refer to image transfer to media from the offset image receiving surface by employing heat and/or pressure to fuse or fix the image to the media as the media and image pass through a transfer zone or nip. Transfer roller, pressure roller and transfix roller as used herein have the same meaning. Image refers to text and/or graphics created with an ink or marking material that is applied to one side of a media sheet. The terms media and paper may be used interchangeably and either term is intended to apply to any type of printable material. The surface receiving the jetted ink image prior to transfer to media is herein referred to as a drum or image receiving surface. The term drum herein encompasses any image receiving configuration with or without a surface coating, including a drum, band, belt or platen.
Conventional printing systems often provide the benefit of reduced paper consumption by enabling duplex printing (images on both sides of a sheet of media). Such duplexing operations are often accomplished by printing on one side of a sheet of media and then, rather than outputting the sheet from the printing device, directing the sheet of media through a duplex path. The duplex path reverses the orientation of the sheet of media with respect to the side being imaged (flips the sheet) and then reroutes the sheet through the imaging path to allow image transfer to the second side of the sheet. One issue associated with such duplexing operations is the time delay that occurs when the sheets are passed through the duplexing path.